Who Is Luiz Carlos Trabuco, Anyways?

Luiz Carlos Trabuco’s most recent award was being named to Ultimo Segundo’s “The Most Powerful 60 [People] of Brazil,” in which he was far ahead of most of the pack, ranking in at 24th. In 2015, the same year that he commissioned the purchase of HSBC Brazil’s banking assets and effectively grew Banco Bradesco’s assets more than 15%.

He was named the finance industry’s Entrepreneur of the Year, an accolade extended to him by business news magazine Isto É Dinheiro, well-known in Brazil. If you look back to 2009, the same year he was promoted by Bradesco to the prestigious, executory position of President of the entire financial institution’s operations, he was subject to three awards: the Don Quixote Trophy, the [most] Meritorious Citizen of Marília – his hometown, not to mention the area he started working for Banco Bradesco in – and a spot on the list of “100 Most Influential Brazilians.”

Mr. Trabuco’s success recognized by the public doesn’t stop there, though, winning back-to-back awards of Insurance Personnel of the Year in 2006 and 2007. 2006, just like 2009, was also a three-award year, earning titles of the aforementioned insurance award, Business Personality of Insurance by the Association of Sales and Marketing Officers of Brazil, and Business Sector leader in Insurance and Pensions by the Gazette Mercantile Business Leaders Forum.

What a mouthful!

Luiz Carlos Trabuco gained reputation in the financial services sector after forty years at Bradesco, after which he was promoted to President in 2009. This means he started his career with the bank in 1969, starting out as an 18-year-old clerk and bank teller in his hometown of Marília, São Paulo. Let’s back up 18 years, to 1951.

On October 6th of 1951, Luiz Carlos Trabuco was born to two working-class parents, neither of which had college degrees nor worked in finance, accounting, consulting, or anything business-related. He graduated high school early, showing prospective talent from an early age. Putting his intellect to good use, teenager Trabuco went to obtain a degree from one of the top postsecondary educational institutions in Brazil: the University of São Paulo. Graduating early for the second time in his young career, Mr. Trabuco graduated with honors in an all-around Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters bachelor’s degree.

Back in the 1960s, any level of educational attainment beyond a high school diploma could propel one far in their career, let alone the potential two degrees could bring one’s self. Realizing it was a more opportune time in his life to work towards one more degree, Luiz Carlos Trabuco stayed within the University of São Paulo system, although he enrolled in the Fundação School of Sociology and Politics. The still-young Mr. Luiz Carlos Trabuco earned a postgraduate degree – that’s the equivalent of a doctorate, something few people obtain even in today’s educational-crazy world – in Sociopsychology, or the study of how people’s brains subtly influenced their behaviors in social settings, a mastery that helped Mr. Trabuco build bonds with fellow coworkers and his underscores of supervisees at Bradesco.

So, now it’s 1971, after Luiz Carlos Trabuco had served Banco Bradesco’s original, 28-year-old branch in Marília for two years. He was pleasantly surprised to be extended an opportunity in an entry-level position at Bradesco’s headquarters in Cidade de Deus, Osasco. 1984 strolls along, in which the previous 13 years Mr. Trabuco had significantly improved communications within the financial institution, largely thanks to his comparatively lofty degrees of educational attainment.

Luiz Carlos Trabuco replaced Márcio Cypriano, Bradesco’s former president for the ten-year period starting in 1999, in 2009. To this day, Mr. Trabuco is best known for his oversight in the purchase of HSBC Brazil, building its own foundation while also preventing other banks from capitalizing on the opportunity.